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sodium channel

(Science: neurology, physiology) The protein responsible for electrical excitability of neurons. A transmembrane ion channel, containing an aqueous pore around 0.4nm diameter, with a negatively charged region internally (the selectivity filter) to block passage of anions.

The channel is voltage gated: it opens in response to a small depolarisation of the cell (usually caused by an approaching action potential), by a multistep process.

Around 1000 sodium ions pass in the next millisecond, before the channel spontaneously closes (an event with single step kinetics). The channel is then refractory to further depolarisations until returned to near the resting potential.

There are around 100 channels per square micron in unmyelinated axons, in myelinated axons, they are concentrated at the nodes of Ranvier. The sodium channel is the target of many of the deadliest neurotoxins.